BTB #182: Brantley Sees ‘Concerns’ Ahead For Authors

“I wouldn’t say I’m concerned about the future of authors,” Peter Brantley tells Chris Kenneally, “but I think that authors have something to be concerned about as we move into a digital future.”

The director of the Internet Archive’s BookServer project, a not-for-profit digital library, and a co-founder of the Open Book Alliance, Brantley shares insights on the perils for authors hoping to “navigate and arbitrate what their rights are to recreate their product in a digital environment.”

With the excitement and freedom of digital publishing, Brantley warns, there remains a need to remain watchful. “It’s not just that authors [now] have an opportunity to create trans-media works that are new and fresh with new material,” he notes. “They also have an opportunity to create trans-media works that are new and fresh from old material. And, again, trying to work through how those things are created, distributed and how the rights are arbitrated for that content, is a big challenge.

1 Comment

It’s a brave new world for authors and publishers today. Whether this will benefit either or both is yet to be seen, but regardless, the changes are inevitable. As a self published author, new to this whole industry, I embrace the changes. But I can see how it is frowned up by the “Old Guard.”